According to the prior art, to minimize the friction between parts moving against each other thus minimizing a wear of the parts, a lubrication between the parts moved relative to each other is established; the oil being preferably used as a lubricant in the lubrication of vehicle transmissions, for example. Vehicle transmissions, the same as other oil lubricated parts, are more and more exposed to increasing loads whereby the oil ultimately used for lubrication is constantly exposed to rising temperatures. If the lube oil is always exposed to high temperatures, the aging, the same as the damage of the lube oil is accelerated. To prevent damage of the lubricated parts due to old lube oil, it is accordingly desirable to detect the age or damage of the oil so as to change the oil in good time according to the age or damage of the oil. From the prior art, no method has so far become known with which the age or damage of lube oil can be reliably determined.
Departing from this, the problem on which this invention is based is to provide a novel method for determining an oil condition, namely, an oil condition corresponding to age or damage of the oil.